“It’s a Silent Fire”: Decaying Digital Movie and TV Show Files Are a Hollywood Crisis
Industry pros sweat the possibility that many digital files will eventually become unusable — an archival tragedy reminiscent of the celluloid era.
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And they wonder why internet pirates so often act like they're trying to preserve dying media. Its because they've created an environment where that's true. If I want to watch a version of the original star wars trilogy without a bunch of wibbly wobbly CGI bullshit, do you know how hard that is?
The vast majority of internet pirates aren't unreasonable scoundrels fueled by hatred of media, they're usually people who love media and analysis and see that the current system doesn't actually benefit the people making the stories we love and doesn't preserve those stories once produced
I'm on a private tracker (pejoratively known as a "piracy site") that specialises in obscure films and documentaries - no mainstream, big studio films are allowed. It is an archive that I am happy to be a part of... and I definitely consider it to be an "archive"; corporations are not going to be interested in maintaining anything that's not profitable. I regularly upload queer films that are difficult to get hold of and I'm happy that they are held on the computers of others in case someone, someday, would like to watch them.
Just gonna add that archives like this are absolutely vital for students too. During a module on animation, which included an historical/contextual research component, I relied heavily on "piracy" to source pretty much everything I looked at from the 1930s onwards - basically everything that was too new to have entered the public domain, but too old/unpopular/obscure to be readily available in a "legal" manner. Most of my fellow students didn't go past 1928, and they lost marks in that assignment as a result. I did not volunteer information about my sources for these files, and the teachers wisely opted not to ask. 😅
What's the best film that you've watched that's the kind of film that'd be on your obscure private tracker?
I recently watched a documentary called Palestinian Identity, made in 1984. I am in the UK and was a young boy at the time, smothered in Very British Propaganda so I was interested in watching it because it was made by the PLO Film Unit. It was excellent and, of course, many parallels to be drawn between then and today, especially because the film begins with a walk around a recently destroyed children's school. It included some fascinating interviews with some of the leading Palestinian cultural figures of the time including Mahmoud Darwish who's considered to be Palestine's national poet... which reminded me I needed to start reading poetry again! Anyway, I'll be quiet now, that went on longer than I was expecting! Thanks for the lovely question.
Anyway, I’ll be quiet now, that went on longer than I was expecting!
Only one paragraph? Please, a few more! <3
I'm an ex-filmmaker and would be interested in your private tracker if u wanted to DM it to me.
If I want to watch a version of the original star wars trilogy without a bunch of wibbly wobbly CGI bullshit, do you know how hard that is?
This. A thousand times.
I found a box set of the trilogy that has the original on one side of the disc and the "special edition" on the other at a used music/movie/video game shop. I was so happy at the time because even at that time (2008ish) it was hard to find the originals. I can imagine it is almost impossible now
There are 2K scans of the original theatrical prints available online. Highly recommended.
Ooh, that sounds way better than the 480p on my discs
It's the original 1977 release. It doesn't even say "Episode 4" on the opening crawl. Star Wars was originally a stand-alone film, and regardless of what George Lucas says, there were no prequels and sequels. I get so angry when I think about how badly he fucked everything up since then.
The result of nobody able to say "no" to him. Empire is the perfect example of someone else with a much better vision than George Lucas.
Gabe Newell's quote from 13 years ago will never not be relevant in such discussions:
In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.
Spotify, Netflix (in it's earlier days) have shown that time and time again. People love convenience. We are ultimately lazy animals. I think if you created a streaming service tailored to really old, obscure shit and you gave it a reasonable price, people would buy it.
